Dr. Spacezoo v0.8.1 was released on 2016/08/23 and brings a huge overhaul to the weapon system. The old weapon system was one of the first systems added back in 2014 and I'm excited to finally replace it. Read on for some of the more significant changes since the v0.7.4 update announcement.

Weapon Upgrades:

The new weapon upgrade system reduces the available weapons to a laser and bullets, each of which now have 3 slots for upgrades. The weapon upgrades drop from enemies and bosses, and each upgrade includes a few properties that improve how the base weapon works. Combining multiple weapon upgrades into a single weapon may create a very powerful and unique weapon.

Currently, the following properties are available for inclusion on a weapon upgrade: Bullets/Photons, Damage, Haste, Homing, Spread, Drunken, Duration, and Velocity. Bullets/Photons offer the biggest increase to raw damage output, followed next by Damage.

The weapon upgrade properties from the earlier missions will be weaker than those from the later missions, and weapon upgrades from a boss will include an additional bonus to each property's roll. The rarity of the weapon upgrade determines the number of properties and the rolling range.

Here's a homing shotgun style bullet weapon created using weapon upgrades:

The weapons created using the weapon upgrades are currently super overpowered and will be tuned over the next several updates.

Here's an example of slotting new upgrades into the bullet weapon:

Daily:

The Daily Challenge is now its own game mode and everyone now starts the daily with the same random selection of core power-ups and weapon upgrades. Be sure to compete each day for the top spot on the Daily leaderboard!

Hit Sparks:

Added hit sparks to the bullet impacts and when ramming an enemy:

Boss fight meters:

Added HP meters for the boss fights, which are very helpful during Boss Rush mode's tag team fights:

Offscreen enemy indicators:

Added offscreen enemy indicators to show where the active enemies are outside the screen, which are very useful for aiming.

Settings:

Added more granular options for Screenshake / Optical Boom Blaster, which were previously a single on/off option.

In Game Steam Leaderboards:

Each mode has its own leaderboard. Select the mode name/mission/level to cycle through the leaderboards: Story, Action, Boss Rush, Permadeath, and Daily

Reminder: Price is going to increase as the game becomes more complete!

The price is going to go up from $7.99 USD to $8.99 USD really soon (next update). If you were waiting for a discount to get Dr. Spacezoo, note that it is already very discounted from its final target price.

Full Patch Notes for v0.8.1 to v0.7.5:

See full patch notes here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/371380/discussions/0/364040961447595214/

v0.8.1 released 2016/08/23:

• New Weapon Upgrade System:
  • Collect weapon upgrades to improve the laser and bullet weapons
  • Properties: Bullets/Photons, Damage, Haste, Homing, Spread, Drunken, Duration, Velocity
  • 3 slots for each weapon
  • Upgrades drop from enemies and bosses
  • Boss upgrades have improved stats over normal enemy upgrades
  • Upgrades improve each mission
  • Upgraded weapons are currently way overpowered and will be tuned in following updates
  • Slightly reduced temporary power-ups bonus for weapon damage and firing rate
  • Bullet firing locations now better aligned with ship's guns
  • Removed old base weapons: homing, shotgun, circle homing, drunken

• Core Upgrades:
  • New tooltips added for core upgrades
  • General improvements to upgrade hud
  • Unified core stat upgrade ranges
  • Improvements to damage reduction

• Bosses now drop weapon upgrades, health, and acceleration power-ups
  
• Daily:
  • Daily is now its own game mode
  • Removed daily from other game modes
  • Everyone now starts the daily with the same core power-ups and weapon upgrades
  • Tracking successful daily attempts for future achievement
  • Lighting fix for daily

• Boss Rush: new games start with 6 random weapon upgrades and 6 pending upgrades
  
• Permadeath Mode: removed weapon drops from permadeath, now using new weapon upgrade system
  
• Drillbot mini/boss no longer kill animals with the drill
  
• Added hit sparks when ramming enemies
  
• Improvements to Laser's hit casting
  
• Improvements to procedural planet rings
  
• Improvements to Joystick navigation
  
• Settings: Added more granular options for Screenshake / Optical Boom Blaster (were previously a single on/off option)
  
• UI Improvements (hover labels are better sized and more intelligent on placement, more tooltips in upgrade hud)
  

v0.8.0 released 2016/07/31:

• Added bullet hit sparks
• Enabled Steam Cloud Saves
• Bug fixes

v0.7.10 released 2016/07/21:

• Boss room procedural generation fixes/improvements
• Slightly reduced difficulty for easy/story mode
• Faster planet generation (1.8x faster)
• Joystick navigation improvements
• Save game bug fixes

v0.7.9 released 2016/07/12:

• Added quick tutorial game mode
• Increased HP return for broken connections for Sub-AI and Boss AI
• Increased minimum animals from 2 to 3 per animal spawner
• Smoother enemy swarmer movement
• Feedbot boss debris fix
• Added support for rectangular procgen levels
• Slightly increased base time in procgen levels
• Slightly decreased screenshake intensity/duration for smaller enemies/animals
• Bullet, debris, and goo pooling improvements
• Bullet trail improvements
• Barrier improvements
• Space debris improvements
• Object Activation improvements
• Shadow/Lighting improvements
• Performance improvements

v0.7.8 released 2016/06/17:

• Added Boss Fight Meters
• Added off-screen enemy indicators
• Story mode: removed Mission 1 hand made levels, now all procgen levels, streamlined Mission 1 story text, tuned easy difficulty to be slightly easier
• Leaderboards: submitting combined scores for co-op play
• Enemies: slightly increased activation range, updated milk bullet's look to be consistent with other enemy bullets
• Procgen: improved boss room generation and reduced max size, tuned level size progression, fixed animals spawning in fountains (for real
• stay out of the fountains you filthy animals)
• Daily: fixed so can only do daily once
• Barriers: removed duplicate overlapping barriers
• Save Files: minor updates in prep for Steam Cloud, fix for incorrectly set last selected mission
• UI improvements

v0.7.7 released 2016/06/12:

• View Steam Leaderboards in game
• UI Improvements

v0.7.6 released 2016/06/04:

• Added temporary damage reduction and pickup range effects to player
• Added temporary weapon damage and firing rate visual effects on beam and bullets
• Improved boss rush difficulty scaling
• Improved joystick UI navigation
• Fixed mission and level unlock bug

v0.7.5 released 2016/05/31:

• Added achievements for completing each game mode
• New games now use a different randomized seed
• Weapon selection fixes for permadeath mode
• Joystick navigation improvements
• Tutorial popup is now only in Story Mode:M1:L1
• Now collecting Steam leaderboard scores